Clash of Los Titanes: A Football Saga

A tight three pronged race in La Liga for the title!

As the World Cup fever sets ablaze, Spain prepares to defend their football supremacy in the upcoming Brazil World Cup. With all attention now on Spanish football, La Liga seems to be pulling all stops to ensure the league remains an enticing one, much to the delight of every football fan all around the globe. This might even go down in the pages of history as the most exciting season in Spanish football.

It was the 24th week of La Liga and even though the league swiftly approaches its end, the league table stood with three teams sharing the top spot, as goal difference plays no factor, all tied at 57 points. The Primera Division entered a crucial week as all three teams, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, had a shaky start to the new year.

Atletico Madrid was first to play. The week after Atletico’s shock defeat at Almeria, who are currently in a fight to avoid relegation, the Rojiblancos scored two goals in a mere four minutes to put themselves ahead against struggling Real Valladoid team to cruise to a comfortable 3-0 victory at home. The win undoubtedly restored the teams hopes of remaining in the title chase after a humiliating 5-0 aggregate loss to Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey semi-finals. But they put that behind them now as they hold on to the top spot after a splendid win on Saturday.

Later that Saturday at Camp Nou, Barcelona marked their 19th victory in the league against Rayo Vallecano after Adriano put them ahead right at the get-go by finding the net in the second minute. Messi’s double-strike saw him overtake Athletic Bilbao legend Telmo Zarra’s record of 335 goals at a single Spanish club, adding yet another record to his kitty. After the comprehensive 6-0 win over Rayo Vallecano, Barcelona joined Atletico at the top with 60 points.

With Barca and Atletico getting 3 points from their homes games, all eyes were on Carlo Ancelotti’s men as they visited neighbor’s Getafe in their La Liga fixture without the reigning Ballon d’Or. With Gareth Bale‘s assist, Jese Rodriguez’s sublime finish put Real ahead in the fifth minute at the Coliseum. Benzema and Luka Modric wrapped things up for their side by finding the back of the net at the 27th and the 66th minute respectively.

At the end of the week, the league resumed its “normality” with the top 3 teams sharing the top-stop on the table with 60 points each. With Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid all gaining 3 points from Jornada (week) 24, Primera Division remains, in what some call, a “three horse race” for the title. It is almost impossible to predict a winner out of the three teams. The league table thus far in no way helps to pick out a favorite as the three teams share 60 points with each team having exactly 19 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses.

In the recent years, La Liga has been classed as a two-team race with no team being able to match the wealth, in terms of talent and money, of Barcelona and Real Madrid(-respectively). But now a steady Atletico Madrid have joined the race and have proved that they are worthy of winning the Primera Division. With 14 more games left in the league, the 2013-14 edition is all set to go down to the wire and quite possibly be the most enthralling season the league has ever witnessed. Never before has the fight for supremacy been so beguiling.

In the last decade, Los Blancos have won three titles(2006-07, 2007-08 and 2011-12) and the current title defenders, Barca, have won six(2004-05, 2005-06, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11, and 2012-13).

It has been 18 years since Los Rojiblancos won their last title back in 1995-96 in the Jesus Gil era under Serbian manager Radomir Antic. Since then the Primera Division has been a Real Madrid-Barcelona dominated affair with a cameo by Valencia in the 2001-02 and the 2003-04 seasons. After a fruitful season so far, their 5-0 aggregate defeat against Madrid saw their exit from the Copa del Rey.

Atleti will now focus all their might on La Liga in hopes of bagging some silverware to show for, in what has been an truly awe-inspiring performance in a long time, because having just a good run is not good enough. Can Diego Simeone steer his men to the title?

So far this season, Atletico’s defense has been top notch and has managed to keep 12 clean sheets, matched only by Barcelona. They also have conceded the least number of goals(16) in the league proving that their defense is as good as their strike attack which consists of Diego Costa, David Villa and Raul Garcia who have scored 21, 11 and 8 goals, respectively. Some might think of Atletico as the under dogs, but they have proved time and again this season that they have what it takes to win the league.

Over the last decade, Real Madrid has witnessed their fair share of ups and downs. Although Madrid under Carlo Ancelotti are yet to win any silverware (being his first year), they have a strong foothold in La liga, Copa del Rey and the Champions league. With the recently crowned Ballon d’Or Cristiano Ronaldo and the rest of the star-studded squad gelling well with the new manager this season, will Madrid be able to seal their 33rd La Liga title? Only time will tell.

Real Madrid, under the new management of Carlo Ancelotti with legend Zinedine Zidane and Paul Clement as his assistants this season, made the most expensive transfer in football history by signing Gareth Bale for £85.3million in September 2013. Bale has proved his worth to the team as he has already scored 9 goals and provided 9 assists, despite his injury-caused absence initially.

Real Madrid’s season so far has had many talking points, especially their fire power, as they have failed to score only once so far this season with CR7 leading the scoring sheet with 22 goals in 21 appearances. Overall Madrid have had a great season with only a few minor upsets along the way.

Athough Barca have dominated Spanish football for the last decade or so, this season only saw their job getting harder with the rise of Atletico and the superb form of Real Madrid. Although they are ahead of the two teams in terms of goal difference in the league, that fact will only be a consolation as it plays no role in deciding the winner of the league. Will it be the Blaugrana who will emerge victorious at the end of the season to successfully defend their title?

The season so far for Barcelona has been a testing one but even in the absence of strikers Lionel Messi and Neymar for a good part of the season, Barcelona has showed that they have a strong bench and remained the highest scoring club in the league so far by scoring 69 goals while keeping a tight defense through out the season (as they have conceded only 17 goals so far). Alexis Sanchez has scored 20 goals so far this season, while Messi and Pedro have 13 goals each under their belt.

Any slip-up in the league now could spell disaster for the side and significantly diminish their chances of winning the league. As all three teams fight relentlessly to hold on to the top-spot in the hope of an upset in the either of the other two’s fixtures, this is turning out to be one of the most exciting Primera Division seasons ever witnessed.

Three face-offs between the title contenders still remain this season: Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid on 2nd March, Real Madrid vs Barcelona on 23rd March and Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid in the last Jornada, 18th May.

As Spain and football lovers all over the world anxiously wait for the league to come to a finish, who will conquer La Liga and claim the greatest glory in the realm of Spanish football is a question best left answered for now.